


Jolene Miller

by thinkwinkink



Series: When Call The Children [3]
Category: When Calls the Heart (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 09:23:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14951969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinkwinkink/pseuds/thinkwinkink
Summary: Jolene stands up to a bully and ends up needing a hand out of a tricky spot.





	Jolene Miller

Jolene sang quietly to herself as they walked along the main street, breath clouding in the crisp air, and Morgan-Rose trotting along beside her. Their mother had sent them to the mercantile for some sugar, and the girls were excited to help her make a special cake for Pa's birthday.

Morgan-Rose tugged on her hand, pulling her to a stop.

“Look!” she gasped.

Farther down Main Street, just visible beyond the bank, a gaggle of children had gathered.  
Several boys laughed, while two girls seemed to be squaring up against them.

Jolene jogged over to the confrontation, hidden mostly in the shadow of the pale blue building, with her sister in tow.

Opal was clearly upset. Cathy and Ann were arguing with James, while Sue tried to soothe Opal.

"There's no reason to pick on her,” Cathy sneered venomously. She was firey, but not unkind without reason. Jolene suspected this argument had been going on for a while.  
“The only reason you prey on people smaller than you is because you're too much of a coward to take on someone your own size,” she continued, jabbing her finger at the tall boy. “It's pathetic.”

The boys all shuffled defensively. Some looked uncomfortable, like they regretted being unkind to such a little girl. Even James seemed chastised.

“Well, however you look at it, that stupid bear is gone now, and she'll be better off without it,” he shrugged, folding his arms.

“What happened?” Jolene cut in.

“He was teasing Opal for always carrying Brownie around,” Ann explained, wild blonde curls bouncing with her agitated gestures. “He snatched the bear, and threw it up on top of the café roof.”

“You should get it back and say sorry,” Jolene said resolutely.

“No way,” James refused, a muttered chorus of agreement came from the boys behind him.

“Brownie’s scared up there!” Opal wailed.

Susan tried to hush her, but the girls started into the boys again, who only became more defensive with every complaint.

While everyone was talking over everyone else, Morgan-Rose tugged gently at her sister’s sleeve to get her attention.

“Can't you get it back?” she asked quietly.

She hesitated. James should do it; it was his fault the bear was missing, and his responsibility to make amends. Plus, he was taller, and the roof was not easily accessed.  
An imploring look from Morgan-Rose and a glance at Opal's pitiful expression made up her mind.

“I'll get him,” she agreed, drawing the stares of the other children.

Holding her head high, she marched around the back of the café, marching straight to the scraggly tree that grew at the end of the porch. It was solid enough to hold her weight - she hoped - but not wise enough that the lowest branches were too high for her to reach.

Before she could hesitate, she took hold of the lowest bough, walking her feet up the trunk until the could put a leg over, and pull herself up. She was good at climbing, and simply refused to look down as she worked her way up and around, until she could jump onto the tin roof of the verandah.

She almost lost her nerve, but the shaking and swaying of the tree made it more appealing to risk the leap than stay where she was.

The distance was more than she'd thought; she had climbed too high, she hadn't even thought about whether the roof would bear her weight.

The sound she made when she hit the metal was deafening, at least to her, but it held. She stayed low, flattening out so as not to slide right off. Suddenly her fear of heights was a fully-blown phobia.

“Can you see Brownie?” Cathy called, somewhere unseen. She was probably standing on the gravel, up on her toes to see Jolene, but suddenly she couldn't lift her head to see the others. She couldn't move at all.

“What was that noise?” gasped a new voice. It sounded like Mrs Stanton, and the steps of several people sounded on the boards below.

“Children?” another woman pressed.

Footsteps on gravel, and then Miss Thatcher’s soothing voice floated up from to her.

“Opal, what's wrong?” she cooed. When there was no reply, she spoke in a harder tone. “James, where do you think you’re going?”

“Home, Miss, I have to help Ma with the chores,” he replied.

Before that line of conversation could progress, Mrs Stanton spotted her.

“Oh my, what on Earth?” she gasped, concern mixed with incredulity. “Is that Jolene Miller on my roof?”

“Jolene!” Miss Thatcher cried in dismay. “Oh my gosh, are you alright?”

“I'm stuck,” she answered miserably.

“Well, how did you get up there?”

“She jumped from the tree,” Morgan-Rose piped up.

A round of murmuring from the grown-ups did little to reassure Jolene.

The corrugated metal was uncomfortable beneath her, made warm from the afternoon sun but dirty and rough where it touched her bare skin. She had her arms splayed as she tried not to move. She desperately wanted not to fall. She screwed her eyes shut tighter.

“Jack!” Miss Thatcher called, relief in her voice. Jolene swallowed. Mountie Jack would help. He had climbed up on their roof at home once, and last week she had seen him do a handstand with the Reilly girls when their momma left them with him to go to the infirmary. He would know what to do.

“What's all the commotion about?” he asked, voice and the crunch of his boots approaching.

“Jolene's up on the roof and can't get down,” she replied. He let out an amused noise.

“Jolene! Are you hurt?” he called up.

“No,” she answered.

“Good. If you jump down, I'll catch you,” he said.

“No!” she gasped. “No, I can't jump. It's too far.” She heard the panic in her own voice but couldn't help it.

“Okay,” he soothed. “Okay. Well, hang on a second.”

There was a thud on the deck, and then a slight shaking to the structure.

“Jolene?” he said, voice much closer.

She peeked out of one eye. Mountie Jack was standing on something, his head and shoulders visible above the roof line.

“Hey there. We're really not that far up. I promise I'll catch you,” he cajoled. “Can you sit?”

She shook her head, breath spiking, but he placed a comforting hand on her foot, the closest part of her.

“It's okay. It feels like a long way down, I know, but I swear I've fallen off things higher than this and walked away,” he laughed.

He had an easy smile on his face. He was always kind and honest. Trustworthy.

She carefully eased herself upright.

He offered her a grin. “Alright,” he approved. “If you slide to the edge, I'll catch you right after you leave the roof. I promise.”

“Okay,” she agreed. She didn't want to get any closer to the edge, but she certainly didn't want to spend any more time up on the roof.

“Okay,” he nodded. He dropped back to the ground, out of sight again and hopefully waiting for her to follow.

She couldn't stop herself from breathing faster and faster as she inched closer to the edge.

“It's okay, Jolene, I'm right here,” he said, sure and steady.

She couldn't look as she dropped her legs over the edge. With one final, shaky gasp, she slipped forward. She let out a high-pitched scream on the way down.

It took less than a second to feel Mountie Jack’s hands against her dress, guiding her into his arms. As her weight hit his chest and stopped falling, he crouched slightly to soften the impact.

She finally opened her eyes. Several women stood around watching, looks ranging from disapproval to relief, with a little love struck gazing from Miss Thatcher at Mountie Jack.  
He let her down, placing her carefully on the ground and not letting go until she was steady. His skin was warm where his shirtsleeves were rolled up. In his uniform boots, trousers and blue shirt, she supposed he was already in the middle of some job when he had arrived. The axe leaning against the railing made her suspect he was cutting firewood.

“What were you doing up there in the first place?” he frowned. He seemed a little more intimidating now that he had them down on the ground.

“She was trying to save Brownie!” Opal supplied.

“What happened to Brownie?” Miss Thatcher asked.

“James threw him up onto the roof because he said she needed to learn to be without him,” Susan said.

Opal sniffled.

“Where on the roof?” Mountie Jack asked sternly.

They all pointed at different parts of the roof. He snorted and rolled his eyes, but turned and made for the roof again all the same.

He grabbed a post and climbed onto the railing, bracing a foot on the thickest branch of the tree as he pushed up, landing on the roof.

Miss Thatcher, who was rubbing Jolene's back in comfort, gasped quietly, but he easily pulled himself onto the verandah roof.

He stood in a crouch, arms out for balance. He looked around, then shuffled along the tin roof until he could reach the bear, wedged under the eave of the upper bedroom window.

“Got him! I'll throw him down,” he called. He lobbed the bear in a neat arc, landing securely in Mrs Stanton’s arms.

Jolene wondered whether he avoided Miss Thatcher on purpose - she had seen her teacher trip over nothing just two days earlier. Luckily, it was just as Mountie Jack came into the room to return a long ruler he had borrowed from the school, and he caught her neatly. He had grinned and said something quiet, she had blushed, and the students had laughed.

Overall, she was very smart and polished and pretty, but she seemed quite bad with her hands.

Mrs Stanton handed Opal the bear, and she ran off with a loud thankyou to Mountie Jack and the girls, bar Jolene and Morgan-Rose, in tow.

The boys took off too, and Mrs Stanton and her customers went back inside.

Mountie Jack braced a hand against the window-sill, leaning casually and looking out over the scenery.

“Jack, come down from there,” Miss Thatcher commanded.

“You going to catch me?” he teased.

“I'd rather not,” she said flatly.

He hummed in acknowledgement, sitting down with his knees bent close to the edge, near where she stood. Jolene, with Morgan-Rose clinging to her arm, hung back, watching the two adults.

“Jack,” Miss Thatcher said. “Are you stuck?”

“What? Me? Never,” he scoffed.

“It seems like you might be stuck,” she said.

He shook his head. “Mounties don't get stuck,” he assured her. Yet, he made no move to come down.

She stared up at him with arms crossed.

“I'll go borrow a ladder from the mercantile,” she sighed.

“There's no need,” he laughed. She started to argue, but he got up and walked away, making his way to the front side of the café.

Miss Thatcher followed his progress with a sound that was akin to a squawk, and the girls trailed after her with a shrug.

He walked all the way around to the far side of the shop, and then, steadying himself against the wall of the upper story, edged to the precipice where the roof ended at the flat back wall.

Sinking into a crouch, he dropped onto the efficiently packed firewood pile, and then jumped to the ground. He landed quietly, like a cat.

“Jack, you could have slipped and fallen!” Miss Thatcher admonished, bustling to his side and touching his shoulders and cheek and chest as though checking he was alright.

“Mounties don't slip and fall,” he shrugged confidently.

“There's a first time for everything,” she said, fixing him with a look.

“I'm sure there is,” he drawled, a crooked grin on his lips. He drew closer, reaching for her and casting a quick look around. Since she and Morgan-Rose loitered at the corner, they were largely hidden from his view.

He pulled Miss Thatcher to him by the waist, and she slid her hands up his arms. She said something too quiet to carry to their ears, and he chuckled softly.

He leant in, kissing her languidly as he slid a hand into her perfectly-curled hair. One of her hands pressed to his face while the other bunched the fabric of his shirt as though to keep him from getting away.

The pair of girls stared in silence for a few seconds, bemused by the semi-public display, before Jolene started pulling her sister back down the street. Morgan-Rose twittered with embarrassed amusement, and Jolene hoped that no-one would walk that way until they were finished.


End file.
